Liverwort Fan Club

[Keith]

In some version of the words of lil hokie in another great thread: Post your Super Awsome liverwort pics here. These things are too cool and I'm hoping if you have these things growing on purpose or by accident anywhere you all would hit us with a pic. Lets get this going...




Also I've not asked permission yet, but I'll see if I can copy and paste a very useful post from Whimgrinder on the subject.

"Those are Liverworts, a type of ancient bryophyte. Virtually unchanged since the fossil record (to be played at 33 and 1/3, of course), these strange things reproduce by spores, not seed. The palm-like bodies you see in the photo are the female stalks, known as archgonia. I see no male stalks, which suggests that this species may be dioecious (male and female plants are separate, like the Nepenthes; either/or, but not both). Some species can also reproduce asexually via "gemma cups" which form like little bird nest shaped organs on the surface of the flat thallus ("leaf" surface), and the gemmae are dispersed by water splashing on the plants."
"You can see gemma cups on the thallus surface in this photo, and the cups are full of gemmae, waiting to be dispersed by rain:


Liverworts are quite fascinating.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marchantiophyta

 

[Bio]

Liverworts and hornworts are fascinating little plants. Truly among my favorites. If only I could take good pics of plants that small.

 

[pearldiver]

There is a very cool nursery about five miles from me, the main building is a geodesic dome in shape. It is run by the son of one of my neighbors. In some areas, there is pretty much constant runoff from watering, and hornworts and other mosses grow there, especially under tables with low light plants under tree shade. I shipped a few pieces to fellow traders some time ago, don't know if anyone had success with them. The pieces I tried to keep pretty much perished in short order.

 

[swords]

Probably tropical forms would do well in terraria and greenhouses but the temperate ones would likely need to experience the seasons to flourish for the long term. I had the Marchantia liverworts growing very well in my crab tanks especially on wet / mud coated cork logs but it eventually petered out (or the crabs ate it - I can't be 100% sure). But it would be awesome to get hold of perhaps some lowland Hawaiian or Puerto Rican liverwort forms for vivarium culture.